I was reminded of something a short bit ago on the subject of illustration thanks to a quick conversation with the awesome =hakubaikou and felt that it may make a good art journal, and since I have time tonight, it means I actually get to put it up too!

Anyway, it's implied with every picture but we never really focus on it the way we should – readability. We get so wrapped up in colors and anatomy, which are important mind you, that we lose sight of the purpose of the illustration in the first place (remember – illustration is a balancing act of many factors and pieces of knowledge). Story telling, readability, plot, intrigue, whatever you wanna call it – it's the base foundation of illustration and is the most important thing toward captivating your audience and making em say, “now THAT is an artist!”

The simple facts are this – in fine art a viewer will usually look at the piece longer, they want to, that's why they're looking at it. They see it and find the redeeming parts of it and sound like drunk poets in a gallery.... (you know it's true!). However, in Illustration you're not the purpose of their viewing the image – lets face it, you're the supporting character, the sidekick. Sherlock needed Watson, right? Well that's what you do, you keep the product flowing, they read a bit and see what you did and blam, it sucks em in the rest of the way. This means that you're story telling, and that readability is where the emphasis is. Few people are going to look at your picture long – other artists will, but the general public isn't artistic. The general public sees the picture and goes back to the product. They view your image for less than a minute often enough, sometimes less than ten seconds. Wanna go into concept art? Guess what, your viewership is even lower than that a lot of the time. It'll get seen by other artists, but again – the big demographics aren't artists in a good majority of these things (unless it's an actual artist resource like “how to draw swamp rats” or whatever it is we buy in book stores – don't look at me, I'm always half asleep when I go to the bookstore, it's dangerous to my bank account...).

So what's the point? The initial read. These people gotta see your image from a glance and know what's happening, or at least have their attention pulled long enough for it to come to them fast. This is hard for a lot of artists, they get so focused on the composition and meeting the criteria of the art director that they forget that the criteria doesn't always say it all – you have to arrange things certain ways, subtle emphasis on anything can change an image in drastic ways.

So you need to pay extremely careful attention to how you light things, the mood you're introducing, a character's body posture and emotive qualities, colors, composition, etc etc. It ALL comes into play. Lets look at it this way, often we create a concept, make the composition work, and give us flow and what not. We may then consider colors. But what do they all have in common? They're all centered around the hub of the story. Those important elements are useless if you can't sell the product with a plot line.

Random concept prompt time, and I urge you to draw this out if you have spare time, an assignment if you want it to be, I'd certainly like to see it if you do:

“A knight kneels on the ground before an ethereal undead warrior of old times. He lays his sword out in front of him as a sign of servitude. They are deep in the Forgotten Woods of (insert spooky woods name here).”

Things I'd be considering? Why is the knight doing this? Is it defeat? Respect? If you can find out, put that into the picture with his facial expression and body posture. Don't know what that would look like? Act it out when nobody is looking.... feel the emotions and then stop and see how you're approaching it. What else..... color moods, do you think a warmer or colder look would show this for what it is? How do we know the undead warrior is of old times beyond the fact that he's dead. Outdated armor? Ruins around him? Perhaps light is striking through the woods to illuminate the man but not the undead figure to signify particular pieces of morality in the tale? Angles to approach the image, birds eye? From the ground? Behind one of them? What can you do with the background to further this, perhaps it's the ruined home of the undead creature, or the trees are so thick that you can't imagine anything getting through..... this one is your picture, based on that prompt, so what would you do and how would you make the story fit. There's much more but I'll leave those to you guys – ask yourself – what does it need? What do you not know? What do you need to think up on your own? How can lighting and texture affect your image? Tell – the – story.

These things can really make or break and illustration – and by focusing on them with real emphasis you can make yourself so valuable to an art director that you'll be in high demand before long should you behave and work efficiently/productively.